Chapter 24 Akwe-Sextia

Without further ado, Dr. Bella and his family had to leave immediately. I helped them bring the old horse from the small stable behind the house. It was deserted, as if nothing had happened. Dr. Bella and the other two hurriedly packed their luggage, and various parchments and suitcases of different sizes were loaded onto the car one by one. There was not much movement at this time, but the windows of the neighbors around them lit up oil lamps one after another. Some people even stuck their heads out to look here, rubbing their sleepy eyes, with an expression of not knowing anything. I have to say that God owes these so-called neighbors an actor trophy.

"Hey, Luke."

I heard a call from behind me, and turned around to find it was Andrew. He was still the same as before, tightly holding the legion flag. There was obviously something wrong with the way Andrew looked at me. I think he might have been frightened by my blood-red chain mail.

"Luka, what just happened?"

Andrew went into the room to take a look at the situation inside, then came out and asked me.

"Andrew, this is obvious." I pointed to the bodies in the room and said to him, "These robbers are probably ordered by the officer we saw this morning who insisted on taking the flag from us to steal it."

"So, you just killed them all?"

"They want to attack Tenaia, you know, I have no choice." I spread my hands and said to him very calmly.

Andrew sighed and said to me helplessly: "Luca, you are breaking the law! This is not the key point. The key point is that we have no money and cannot afford a "guarantor" (a public office in Roman law, equivalent to the ancestor of today's lawyers)!"

"That's not important, Andrew." I continued to complain to him, "Look at the robbers on the ground now. No one is a witness. Don't look at the guys who just turned on the lights. They are a bunch of cowards. No one dared to make a sound when the robbers made such a loud noise. Now they wake up when there is no movement!"

After that, I helped Prasvia load a heavy package onto the carriage. It took about half an hour for Dr. Bella and his family to board the carriage. Before leaving, Dr. Bella handed me a small cloth bag. I opened it and saw through the faint firelight that it was full of silver coins called denarii, on which was engraved the current emperor Valentinian III. I was not interested in the emperor's head. I was just concerned about the weight of the bag. I weighed it a few times and it was really heavy.

"Take it. This is all our family's savings. This is our way of thanking you." He knew I might refuse, so he handed it to me solemnly in an unquestionable tone, and then said, "Then I agreed to your marriage with Tenaya two years ago. It's a pity that Tenaya's family background is not good. She is a child of the lower class. I hope you don't despise her."

"Old doctor, I think it's a little early to discuss this issue now." In the current situation, I chose to be rational instead of indulging my lower body's instinct to think. "You go first, stay away from this place of trouble. Andrew and I will live for a long time with your financial support, so you don't have to worry too much."

"Well, I can only say in the end, be careful." Doctor Bella said, got on the carriage, pulled the reins, and the old horse slowly pulled the carriage to the exit of the village in the east. Before leaving, Tenaia actually waved to me and said goodbye. I smiled and returned the greeting until I watched the carriage disappear into the night.

I restrained my somewhat stiff smile and turned around to look at the neighbors who had gone out to observe the house. Their eyes were wide open, staring at me in horror, as if I were a devil sent by Satan to the world.

"What should they do, Luka? Everyone in front of you is a witness now."

Andrew stuck the legion flag into the ground, held the hilt of the sword with his right hand, and looked at me, as if waiting for something.

"What are you doing, Andrew?" I understood what he meant. He did this simply because he thought that these neighbors who were watching would identify us as the murderers to the troops in the city.

"Since you have already killed the man, we may fall into the trap that the Romans have set for us in advance. My opinion is that one less witness will be more protection for both of us."

"Then that will make the Roman want Dr. Bella's family."

I said, holding down the iron sword he was about to draw, "Let's go, we still have the money Dr. Bella left for us, let's get out of here first."

Andrew seemed to agree with my idea. He took his hand off the iron sword, pulled the military flag out of the ground, and finally looked at the neighbors around him vigilantly, then followed me and disappeared into the darkness.

Similarly, we ran all the way eastward, because the west belonged to the occupied area of ​​the empire, which was the territory of the Goths. We dared not stop at night. We ran along the long road. According to Andrew, this road was the main road to Akve-Sextia (now the Marseille area). We were afraid that there would be soldiers chasing us from behind (we only found out later where the soldiers came from. The place was in chaos and the soldiers were busy dealing with the Burgundians who were invading from the northern border. They had no time to reward us two bandit-suppressing heroes). We ran and ran until Andrew and I couldn't run anymore. We fell down in the bushes by the roadside, gasping for breath. We fell asleep while gasping for breath. When we woke up again, it was already dawn the next day.

I was in so much pain all over, probably because I stretched my muscles too much. I struggled to stand up and looked at my body. The blood on my bloodstained mail had already coagulated and was emitting a foul bloody smell. I was afraid that by then, there would be no need for the soldiers to catch us. Even if we walked further to an uninhabited area, the wild wolves would not be able to resist the temptation of the bloody smell and eat me up.

"Let's go, we are not out of danger yet." Andrew stood up, patted the dirt off his body, and pursed his cracked lips.

"We have no water." I said worriedly, "If we don't solve this serious problem now, then we might as well be fed to wolves in the wild."

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"It's just ahead," Andrew pointed ahead and said to me, "There's the river where we rafted last time. We can drink our fill there before we continue!"

"Okay, what about food? How do we solve the problem? Should we pretend to be dead at night and wait for the wild wolves to fight to the death?"

"Ha," Andrew laughed, "Don't worry about that. There are many villages along the way. Don't worry, these Yas are enough for us to have a good meal and drink to get to Akwe-Sextia."

"So what you mean is that we should join the army in that place?" I was a little tired. There was really no way for me to serve my country. What's more, I didn't want to serve this country because I didn't owe her anything.

I got up and followed Andrew, moving step by step towards Akwe-Sextia. I was very confused because I didn't know what I was doing. Was it to help this German in front of me fulfill his patriotic ideal? Or to realize the so-called value that I was not sure about. Wouldn't it be better to marry Tenaia in mediocrity and then live in obscurity until the end of my life? Why did I have to join the army and fight? Why did I have to flee everywhere? Why did I live in such a world?

(End of this chapter)